R&D Engineer - 2D/Compositing

Who We Are:

Industrial Light & Magic, founded in 1975 by George Lucas, has created some of the most iconic moments in motion picture history. From Star Wars to Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, The Avengers, theme park rides and interactive experiences, ILM continues to expand the possibilities of what visual entertainment can be.

ILM’s Research and Development (R&D) group develops the ground-breaking technology that empowers our artists to create dazzling visuals.  ILM’s innovations have won 34 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards®. Today, we are 70+ visually-minded software engineers, working side-by-side with over a thousand digital artists in a fast-paced, intensely collaborative, creative film production environment, across studios in San Francisco, Vancouver, London, Sydney, and Mumbai.

Summary of the Role:

We seek engineers to join our 2D/Compositing R&D team and help us develop tools and production techniques for image processing, compositing, and rotoscoping.  We work side-by-side with visual effects artists in production on major motion pictures to design, develop, and apply techniques such as:

• Depth estimation
• Image segmentation
• Generative in-painting
• Plate relighting
• Image upscaling
• Frame interpolation.  

We welcome engineers with a passion for applying the latest machine learning technology to these challenges and more!

At ILM, a good idea is a good idea, regardless of where it comes from! Do you thrive in a creative environment? Do you enjoy sharing knowledge and learning from others? If you love art, technology, and movies, then this might be the role you’re looking for.

ILM strives to be an inclusive environment, and the R&D group in particular embraces promising individuals with a variety backgrounds and experiences.
 

What You’ll Do:

• A little bit of everything! Develop innovative algorithms, craft artist-friendly user interfaces, optimize data management processes, and build special purpose content creation tools that handle large-scale photo-realistic visual effects production. Occasionally, you might work on shots alongside artists.

• Work with engineers across all ILM’s studios, splitting time between long-term software development projects and day-to-day artist support, consultation, and problem-solving.

• Collaborate with Disney Research|Studios and with commercial software vendors in developing and deploying the next generation of machine-learning-based imaging tools.

What to Bring:

• Proficiency in C++ and/or Python on Linux.

• Knowledge of and/or eagerness to learn principles of visual effects, especially image processing: high dynamic range image formats, lens models and camera tracking, deep image data, matting and segmentation.

• Experience with Nuke, as a user and plugin developer, is helpful, ideally including Nuke’s ML-server.

• Experience with machine learning techniques, processes, and toolsets.

• Working knowledge of standard data formats: OpenEXR, Alembic, USD, etc. 

• Enthusiasm for designing artist-friendly interfaces using GUI toolkits: Qt, PySide, QML, etc.  You don’t need to be a professional UX designer, but you should have a keen sense for how creative people use technology to work together in production.

• Appreciation of software development principles: object-oriented design, test-driven development, source code management, build and release processes.

Education / Experience:

• BS and/or advanced degree in computer science or related field, or similar experience.

• Typically 2+ years or demonstrated experience with professional software development and/or VFX production.

JoinILM

The hiring range for this position in Vancouver is C$92,800 to C$124,400 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other variable pay or benefits, may be offered dependent on the level and position offered.